[Volume XXV
THE CHICAGO BANKER
18
Joliet Title and Trust Company
Stockholders of the Joliet (111.) Title & 1 rust Company, which was organized a short time ago consolidating all the abstract companies of that city met recently and completed their organization by electing officers and directors. The board of directors is composed of the following men.
Henry R. Pohl, Adam Groth. Henry T. Truby, Charles F. Goodspeed, J. C. Adler, Jr., and j. H. Ray. Henry R. Pohl was elected president and treasurer of the new company; Henry T. Truby, vice-president; Charles F. Goodspeed, secretary and manager of the abstract department.
Now that they are fully organized with their plans thoroughly mapped out Joliet will by the first of the month have a title and trust company doing business on a systematic and immense scale capable of handling the growth of the city in realty and industries. It is the purpose of the new company to cater to the good will of the public and by combination instead of competition give the people just as cheap service but a great deal more satisfactory. At first they will merely conduct an abstract business; then later abstract and title guarantee and finally when it appears to be opportune it will branch out into a fully organized trust company.
!The boosters of this organization are to be commended for their enterprise and thriftiness. They are all counted among Joliet’s hustling business men.
The offices of the new company will be where the Will County Abstract Company is at the present time, in the Commercial Club block.
The Business Monthly
1 he First National, of Pittsburgh, has issued the July number of its magazine, The Business Monthly. It contains a fine portrait of Lawrence O. Murray, the new Comptroller of the Currency, together with the usual variety of discussion and information regarding financial and industrial affairs.
LYMAN E. WAKEFIELD The Official Candidate of the Minneapolis Chapter, A. I. B., for Vice-President of Associated Chapters, at Providence Convention
Wakefield for Vice-President
By President E. S. Jones.
At a meeting of the Minneapolis delegation to the Providence convention, held last week, it was unanimously decided to support the candidacy of Lyman E. Wakefield for vice-president of the Associated Chapters for the coming )'ear. Mr. Wakefield has been one of the most active workers of the Minneapolis Chapter ever since coming to this city, some seven years ago, and during the past year has served as president. The fact that we have had a most successful year is due entirely to his efforts. He is well known among the chapter workers in various parts of the country, having attended several of the conventions and always taken a prominent part in all questions pertaining to the welfare of the Institute. It will therefore be with a great deal of pleasure that Chapter members throughout the country will hear of Mr. Wakefield’s candidacy.
V*
Richmond Chapter Delegates
I he delegates to the Providence convention from Richmond, (\ a.) wall leave Sunday. July 19th. going by way of Merchants and Miners Line direct to Providence. They are: W. W. Neale, City Bank; G. H. Bates, National Bank of Virginia; W. W. Dillard, American National; J. S. Haw, First National; G. J. [ones, Merchants National; C. L. Williams. Capital Savings, and H. F. Talbott, Planters’ National. Geo. FI. Keesee of the national executive committee of the associated chapters, with the Merchants National will accompany the delegation.
Depositors’ Guaranty by Legislation
the bank and the public, and not as an embarrassing or hampering element.
An oft repeated complaint is of the impossibility of getting competent examiners, that the salary is too small to attract good men. Then the salary should be raised. The state of California is big enough, is rich enough, and its banking interests are of such magnitude that the matter of salary should not be a stumbling:
Large appropriations are made by the national government for the improvements of small creeks and harbors ; the state of California frequently appropriates funds for the advancement of personal interests of favored legislators : the city of San Francisco and other bay cities recently raised quite a fund for the extermination of rats and the prevention of a possible spread of the bubonic plague; San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities raised generous contributions for the entertainment of the fleet. All of these are perhaps all right for the purpose, but that which is of vastly greater importance, that of preserving the integrity of our banking system and retaining the confidence of the public, is allowed to suffer owing to lack of sufficient funds to properly carry on the work.
I have long wondered if the expense could not well be justified of having such a force of examiners that an examiner could stand in the relation of a vice-president to a certain group of banks, going to each bank and spending several days even with the smallest, and a longer time in proportion with the larger ones. This could only be possible by having a sufficiently large number so no examiner would have more than seventy-five to one hundred banks in his group.
Let him spend such a number of days as might be necessary to properly audit the bank, going into details minutely, 'and later call a meeting of the board of directors at which he
In Three Papers
By C. F. Hamsher, Cashier of the Bank of South San Francisco
man. Many men over sixty are physically unable to stand the strain of constant travel, irregular hours, and poor hotel accommodations. Five years is none too much of a requirement as to experience. The more experience, the better the examiner.
\v hy should not the would-be examiner pass an examination as to fitness? Physicians, iawyers, dentists, and other professional men must show fitness before being permitted to deal with the public. Why not the same requirement of the examiner who is to come into your bank and mine and point out our mistakes?
i he good examiner is not the one who comes m and rides over you roughshod, but rather the one who comes as a friend to advise with the banker, to suggest certain changes, to insist on compliance with the law, but to do it as a means for closer and safer relations between
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LISBON,	.	.	.	IOWA
(PART THREE.)
Why is it a farce? Why have banking examinations been ineffective in the past? Because of politics, and politics will forever ruin banking supervision if exercised in the appointment of examiners.
No satisfactory reason can be given why a man who has been an old w heel horse in his party, be it republican or democratic, should make a good bank examiner.
A bank examiner to be an efficient servant of the people, should be or have been, a practical banker. Recognizing this, a number of states have made as a condition for qualification for the position as head of the banking department or as deputy, -'at least three years’ banking experience," or service for a like period in the banking department of some other state.” This provision applies, however, only to the chief official and his next in authority, and does not cover the qualifications of examiners—the men who must go out to the banks and make the examinations.
The chief official can only judge from the reports as transmitted to him. If the examiner is incompetent or hurries through his investigation, the head of the department is in a poor position to advise owing to a lack of knowledge of conditions. It would seem as if it were vitally essential that examiners should also have had previous experience.
A legislative enactment requiring a minimum age of twenty-five—thirty would be better—and a maximum of sixty, w ith at least five years’ practical experience, with an examination as to knowledge and fitness, would give a much better class of examiners.
The young man under twenty-five has rarely had sufficient experience anil training for so important a position, and owing to his youth his recommendations, often to men of twice his years and experience, do not carry the weight they w'ould, coming from an older